


Enlightenment

by StrangeMischief



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, F/M, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-10-26 11:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20741132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeMischief/pseuds/StrangeMischief
Summary: Love is pain, Stephen was told. Love requires sacrifice. How meaningless it had sounded. How dismissive he’d been.Oh, how he’d learned.





	Enlightenment

**Author's Note:**

> As always, enjoy :3

_ Enlightenment _

_Love is pain_, Stephen was told. _Love requires sacrifice_. How meaningless it had sounded. How dismissive he’d been.

Oh, how he’d learned.

When his voice was ripped from his throat against his better judgment, leaving him silent in a world dependent on sound, the sea-witch had assured him it was nothing but the cost of a human heart. When he crawled ashore, lungs screaming for salty air and body aching from the beat of waves against his weak, human skin, he heard her voice, promising him the prince’s heart should he only pay the fee. When he stood the first time, unable to let loose the blood-curdling screech that should have followed the sensation of hundreds of jagged knives tearing into his new legs, Stephen ran her assurance that love calls for sacrifice through his mind until he found the strength to grit his teeth and pull his shivering body across the damp, moonlit dunes.

During the hours spent in his assigned palace quarters, instructional book in hand, spinning around in timed steps until he could do so without wincing, Stephen reminded himself that each agonizing stab was a small price to pay to have dark, hickory eyes, staring at him with wonder. When he stood at the royal ball, a piece of his soul chipping away with each song Tony and the honey-haired woman from the temple danced to, he mouthed inaudible mantras on devotion, on love, on _sacrifice. _

And when Stephen hovers at Tony’s bedside, gazing upon his sleeping face, laxed and free of frown lines, he wonders if the prince knows of pain. As he turns to Tony’s new wife, whose curtain of golden hair surrounds her head like a glittering halo, he wonders if she knows of sacrifice.

Love is pain. Love requires sacrifice. This much Stephen knows. Tony would probably scoff. His temple-bride would likely shrug. They’d find it meaningless. They’d be dismissive.

Oh, how they’d learn.


End file.
